TroutCron

11 hours ago, Second Base said:

That's great and everything, except the Cubs aren't going to be willing to trade Caratini unless the Angels come to them offering up Marsh and more. And even then, they may be more willing to trade Contreras because he's closer to free agency, in which case it's going to cost a lot more than Brandon Marsh.

You might be fine with giving up serious prospect capital for a catcher, but I'd just as soon keep our top prospects and get a solid overall catcher with two years of control.

The Angels likely targets via trade are Gomes and Hedges, that's it..

I wouldn’t trade Marsh under any circumstance. I think he is going to be better than Adell. I don’t think Caratini will cost a top three prospect. I could see Rengifo, Adams and a lower level pitcher getting the job done. 

19 hours ago, Second Base said:

Just my guess.....

1. The Red Sox will trade Jackie Bradley Jr. this winter, and will trade Mookie Betts at the deadline next year.

2. The D-Backs are going to trade Robbie Ray. 

3. The Rays will trade Ji Man Choi.

4. The Indians are going to trade Kluber and Carrasco if they can.

5. Jerry Dipoto will be willing to trade anyone, and I mean ANYONE. 

6. The Nationals are going to trade Yan Gomes to the Angels. 

7. The Reds and Mets won't trade anyone until the trade deadline in 2020, but when they do, Syndergaard, Bauer, Stroman will all be on the move.

There are enough mediocre catchers on the FA market to choose from without trading for Yan Gomes. The Angels need a catcher who can be around for more than one year. I would like to see a trade for Caratini from the Cubs.  

Bum has a lot of mileage on an arm that relies on high fastballs. Hamels shouldn’t get more than a one year contract. Odorizzi had his best season in his walk year not worth more than two years. 
 

On another note, Marsh should be untouchable since he may turn out to be better than Adell, who is definitely untouchable. 

4 hours ago, Dochalo said:

Two guys.  One a free agent, the other a potential free agent.  Let's look at their last two years:

Player A 
377.2 ip
3.65 era
3.37 FIP
8.9 WAR
entering age 30 season and a free agent but almost 2 full years younger than player B

Player B
339.0 ip
3.48 era
3.39 FIP
8.1 WAR
entering age 31 season and could opt out of 4/100

both players have had TJ surg.  

if you haven't already guessed, Wheeler is player A and Strasburg is player B.  

This is my pitch for Zack Wheeler.  I don't think he'll cost anywhere near that of Stras, he's almost two years younger, and has actually been better than or at least equal to Stras over the last two years.  Plus, he's pitched more innings.  

He ranks 9th in pitcher WAR over the last two seasons.  Ahead of Clevinger, Syndergaard, Greinke, Strasburg, Jose Berrios, Kyle Henricks, Kershaw, Luis Castillo, Tanaka, Lester, Hamels, Bumgarner, and many others.  Most by a fairly large margin.  

If Cole wasn't available, we'd all be talking about getting him.  He's a strong #2 and a borderline #1.  I think it's gotten lost on how good he is because he plays next to Syndergaard and deGrom on a team with a dynamic pitching staff that couldn't make the post season and very few people have seen him.  

Just in case people didn't realize it, he can throw 100mph and his avg fastball is 97.0 mph.  His slider avg'd 91.5 mph.  

He needs to be our 2nd guy.  I think 4/72 gets it done which would be a bargain in my opinion.  

here's a video of him dominating.  

 

 

Starting pitching is at such a premium that I think Wheeler gets at least 4/88 or 5/110.  

On 10/5/2019 at 7:09 AM, totdprods said:

Still think he’s likelier to opt-out next offseason, when he can be the clearcut #1 FA SP.

His annual salary also drops back to $15m in ‘21 - it’s still $25m in 2020.

Don’t forget that Boras is his agent along with Cole’s. Boras will have a tremendous amount of leverage in negotiations, which will probably last until January or February. If Cole gets 6/210 or 7/240 then Strasburg will probably get at least 5/150. I think that Stras may stay with the Nats who can add a year or two to the existing contract. Of course, like all big contracts the Nationals give, there is a lot of deferred money. 
 

The Angels will have to reach real deep to sign either one. 

Pujols should be relegated to an occasional DH when Ohtani can’t and otherwise the bench. Upton still can be a productive hitter. Marsh still hasn’t played above AA. You don’t worry about what position Minor Leaguers will play until they are needed. Marsh and Adell can both play all three outfield spots. The Angels can sign a IB and not have to rush Adell and Marsh until they are needed. 

The Angels trade Simmons for pitching

Fire Eric Kay

Hire Maddon

Can any of you picture Upton playing left field in Fenway without laughing. The Red Sox are only trading for young controllable players, especially pitching. The thought of trading Upton for another bad contract is a good one but not with the Red Sox. 

There are several candidates to be DFA’d. Suarez, Sandoval and Barria need time in AAA. The bullpen needs a couple of upgrades. Robles, Buttrey, and Middleton are locks and probably Noe Ramirez. It would be nice if there was a reliable lefty too. There will be lots of FA opportunities for the pen. 
The needs of the rotation are obvious. There are two returning pitchers in Heaney and Canning neither who are without serious question marks. 
 

Hopefully the stigma surrounding the Skaggs investigation won’t deter FA from signing with the Angels. 

4 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

Well at least I know why Eric wasn't getting back to me on my AFL press access requests. 

He's pretty much done with the Angels and perhaps anything else worthwhile if he avoids jail. 

I read that he was in rehab for the second time this year. So much for the no tolerance edict. 
 

This organization needs a purge in the front office starting with Carpino and maybe Eppler as well. Arte needs to act strongly and make a statement. I can’t feel sorry for Kay after admitting that he supplied and used opiods with Tyler and others for years. He needs to work on his life issues full time and try to extricate himself from his addictions.  

4 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

Yeah man, this is bad. We need to sign Joe Maddon and start making some positive waves, including the trade market and as soon as FA begins make a nice splash or two. 

Why would Maddon want to sign on to this mess? I don’t see any FA signing either. Arte needs to clean house starting with Carpino and Eppler, and of course Kay. 
 

This is the worst case scenario for this team at this time. 

The Angels should sign Howie to play 1st and limit Pujols to just DH when Ohtani can’t. 

-  Maddon, Pujols decides to retire, Grandal, a solid lefty for the pen and a decent second starter and of course, Cole. 
 

Realistically, d’Arnaud, Hamels, Will Harris,  Kyle Gibson along with Maddon. I don’t trust Eppler to reel in a big fish. 

They should move the whole city of Oakland to Las Vegas, a match made in purgatory. Seriously, Oakland has fought every attempt by the A’s to build a new stadium. Las Vegas would be a good spot for them, they can change their name to Oakland A’s of Las Vegas! 

If the Angels were to sign Gerrit Cole wouldn’t they have to drop 10 spots in the first round? 
 

The draft is such a crapshoot past the first few picks but I think the Angels need to draft pitching especially some big arms. That said, the Angels need catching and corner infielders too.

On 10/3/2019 at 1:51 PM, Angel Oracle said:

Hamels, Hill, and Ryu are all lefties.     Halos already have Heaney, Sandoval, and Suarez from the left side.   Unless one of them gets dealt to help fill another position or the farm?

No way Suarez can be counted on. He simply lacks MLB stuff. Sandoval could be a good number 5 but he needs to work on his command. Houston and Oakland are predominately right handed hitting teams so adding another lefty starter could be problematic. The best fit of the three is Ryu but he will probably want at least three years with a long list of injuries to his arm. Hill also has injury issues. Hamels is just okay but he doesn’t really move the needle much. 

9 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

For the next eight years, you get to choose:

Mike Trout absolutely dominating baseball - Four more MVPs, four other Top five finishes.  And the team may sniff at the playoffs.  Maybe one Wild card win.  But a lot of 83 win seasons

 

OR

 

Trout becomes just an All Star; no MVPs; an All Star six of the 8 years; Trout passing significant names on significant lists; But the team has success - call it the 2004-2009 type of success; multiple playoffs, a coin flip to go to the World Series

 

Which would you take?

 

No brainer, winning is the ultimate goal for most franchises. Trout has already done enough to make the HOF so just a good Trout and winning is the choice.

Eppler will go to Carpino who in turn will involve Arte on big offers to free agents, the rest is on Eppler. 

I think there will be more wins available in 2020 depending what Houston does to rebuild a pitching staff that will be without 20 game winner, Cole. Oakland, on the other hand, has three very promising young starters for 2020 along with a healthy Maneaa. Tampa Bay is always loaded with young talent and more than capable of winning over 90 games again. The Red Sox have some major holes to fill especially on the mound. It doesn’t appear that they intend to be big spenders in the offseason, but they are certainly capable of winning 90 games. Minnesota and Cleveland play 19 games against KC and Detroit along with the White Sox. 
Bottom line is that the Angels are going to have to be healthy and the offseason acquisitions have to produce to be able to compete for the Postseason! 
The American League is loaded. 

2 hours ago, Scott34 said:

Maddon had dinner with Arte recently and it’s a done deal.

I know this isn’t my beat anymore but I talked to someone who has been with the team for 20+ years and it’s a done dealio.

Carry on.

Isn’t that tampering since Maddon was a Cub through yesterday. I can believe that Arte had dinner with Maddon’s agent. 

3 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

For what it's worth, Upton deserves every bit of the criticism he's gotten here and elsewhere. 

Do I think Upton and Simmons will have a better 2020 campaign? Well in Upton's case, there's only one way to go and that's up -- if he can manage to stay healthy. 

Simmons has a year left on his contract and like Doc said, he's been shit on offense this season. That swing looks awful. If he can hit like he did the previous two years I'd be down to keep him and trade Fletcher. 

Why trade Fletcher? He was the second best hitter and a much better defensive player than expected. He also plays the game the right way and did a good job as a leadoff hitter. Fletcher is a keeper. 

If he averages 20+ pitches an inning he will tax the crap out of the pen. Five inning starters are a disaster for the most part. Still I hope he does well.

By around the midfle of July it should be the Beatles- I'm a Loser!

Change his name to CJ Street.

It is not easy to trade for a bat this early in the season. Most teams still think they have a chance to contend. Teams that want to move player will wait until late July when there are more bidders. The Angels don't need to trade prospects for a rental. Eppler just needs to be patient and do what he does best, find clean peanuts.